REVIEW: Crayola Wild Notes

August 31st, 2010

{ disclosure : Guest writer, Gail G., attended Time to Play Preview Luncheon and received a gift bag }

Always a big fan of creative fun, what caught my eye was a notebook from Crayola called “Wild Notes”. On the surface it looked like an ordinary notebook. It is a 2 subject notebook that is college ruled (also available as a 1 subject notebook and wide rule as well). The book is 9.5” x 6” and has 75 sheets of paper. The paper is easily perforated for removal if you, say, wanted to hang a masterpiece.

It is packaged with a special pen designed to work only with Wild Notes. When writing on the paper with the special pen, the ink changes colors as you write. I did find that the ink is a little light and slow to appear, but I think that is from the reaction from the ink and paper. For a child, it’s probably magical. After about 10 seconds, it will become a full rainbow of color. The pen is very comfortable in your hands when writing and the wire binding of the notebook is large enough to hold the pen for safe keeping.

The front cover serves only as the packaging and does come off revealing a new artsy page underneath which is meant to use as the actual cover. I liked that, since the pen’s packaging was glued to the cover and ripped a bit upon removal. An added bonus to ensure the fun doesn’t end if you lose said magical pen, they also give you a number to call for a pen replacement. Another added plus, since the book would just be a regular notebook without this special pen, you can use regular pens and pencils with the pages and it would work normally, but where would the fun in that be!

I gave it to my toddler to try and he really liked the different colors appearing, but I would recommend this notebook for an older child. This would make a great stocking stuffer at $7.99 retail (can be found as low as $2.99) and even a “keep busy” table item at a dinner out.